The first sale

As a furniture builder, there is nothing worse than making cutting boards. When you have left over lumber you just can’t bring yourself to throw it out or burn it.

So I made a cutting board. Two to be exact.

….. My first two cutting boards

Side note; my wife and I still use both of these boards.

My wife posted these on Facebook with a little caption “Look what my hubby made for me”. The comments blew up… Where can I get one…. Can he make me one….. How much are they…. I need one…. you get the idea.

So I set out to make a whole lot of cutting boards, mostly end grain (harder to make). I think between early June and December before Christmas I made 40 cutting boards.

This was a lot of work, but very rewarding because something I made people were not only exited about, but they were buying them. I sold every one of those boards that year and I thought that this was going to be my side gig.

The following year I was going to be ready.

I made 20 or 30 cutting boards in preparation for all the orders.

Mass production of cutting boards in my shop.

And guess what happened. They never came. I could not sell all of them the following year and was stuck with about 15 boards with no home. Epic flop and I did not make the money I was hoping for. Remember I now had to buy all the lumber for this round of boards.

I did however come up with a marketing plan. I sold raffle tickets to win cutting boards. I donated my cutting boards and sent the proceeds to St. Jude’s.

YouTube video of me introducing raffle and donation plans.

All this just keeps my name out there. Just remember not to get frustrated by the lack in leads or sales just keep pushing forward and more good things will come.

From all of these cutting boards has come great leads and jobs for me. And yes I still make cutting boards.

And furniture by the way.